Any advice with my matter will be highly appreciated - noisy neighbour

csgohan4

I have a mid terraced house and our neighbours heat our house which is nice. Also minimal noise

[Deleted User]

Alex1B said:

1. How do I find if they are council tenants and who is the landlord of proprety?

2. If a complaint is made to the council, how long it will take them to act on my concern and to resolve it (from your experience)?

3. If proprety is sold at a later time, if any loss is suffered, can I make the lanlord liable for it, as he, in my opinion is responsible for the tenants?

  All you are going to do is waste your own money. It sounds like normal family life and the council/landlord will tell you that they can't do anything about children playing because that's what children do and your street isn't a child-free gated community just for you.

Better still if you do make a complaint then you will have to declare it when selling your house, reducing its value, and there is no way you can pass the cost on to anyone else.

HRH_MUngo

It does sound like ordinary family noise.  Children are not going to creep around like mice, and neither are their parents.  I think it is you that is being a bit unrealistic.

Even if you have a detached house, unless it is in the middle of nowhere, you will still hear noise of lawnmowers, pressure washers and kids playing.

elsien

HRH_MUngo said:

It does sound like ordinary family noise.  Children are not going to creep around like mice, and neither are their parents.  I think it is you that is being a bit unrealistic.

Even if you have a detached house, unless it is in the middle of nowhere, you will still hear noise of lawnmowers, pressure washers and kids playing.

It can be over and above usual family noise but still not enough to reach a threshold for anyone to deal with it,
Slamming doors, bashing things against the skirting boards when playing and running up and down stairs can all be particularly annoying because they either sound closer or make things vibrate.
I'm still waiting for the OP to come back and explain the conversation with the neighbours in a bit more detail.

HampshireH

I think oP has done a runner.

However if they are reading.

The approach should be to have another normal neighbourly conversation with them and let them know the impact  if indeed it is more than normal living noise. Perhaps you could record the noise so they have a greater understanding rather than thinking your just moaning. (Especially if you have the mindset they must be council tenants as if thats somewhat less worthy).

Going legal or whatever etc without doing so isnt rational. Any legal route would expect  more than one attempt to be made to resolve amicably.

KxMx

The noise does sound like normal family life, but it could still be deemed too loud. There is hearing noise because the walls are thin, and hearing noise because the occupants are being excessive. 

Where I live now is mid terrace. I do hear neighbours occasionally, nothing excessive. The semi detached I was in before was a nightmare with 2 adults, 4 boys next door who were incapable of speaking at a normal volume or shutting a door without slamming, our cupboard up against a non adjoined wall used to rattle! 

I know of a single person who was strongly warned by EH, a neighbour had complained, EH attended to listen and were astonished that there was just a  single occupant because the noise volume was quite something. It was loud enough for EH to threaten action.

OP on the first instance you need to contact your local Environmental Health team at the council. They will send a letter to them and a diary to you to fill out. 
They then may attend to listen or provide recording equipment. 

In normal times it can take months and months so don't expect a quick resolution. 

Smodlet

Unfortunately, OP, we live in the Age of the Entitled Chav, a species which has a great deal of (usually erroneous) knowledge about its rights but which lacks the ability to grasp any concept of its responsibilities.  The other posters who have said the only solution is to buy a detached house far from neighbours are correct.  Would we could all afford to do so or, indeed, lived in a country with the space to allow for this.  The only realistic solution for the vast majority of us is to be fortunate enough to have considerate neighbours, an aspiration almost as unattainable as the aforementioned detached house.

We went down the EH route with the previous chav-incumbent a few years ago (the present ones are an improvement, if still irritating)  It took only 2 and a half years to evict her despite her illegal activities on top of the noise nuisance she caused:  She was a drug-dealing prostitute.  On the day they finally, finally evicted her, a garden sack full of weed (as opposed to weeds) was found in her kitchen.  I tell you this only to support the veracity of my statements.

If a council can take so long to do anything in those circumstances, I do not hold out much hope for you with only "normal" (hah!) noise to complain about, given the current situation and the obscenely skewed and long-drawn-out legal system we are subject to.  I wish you luck anyway.

One note of possible hope I might offer is that, if they are council tenants, you should get more help than if they are private tenants.  Private landlords have no obligation to do anything about their tenants, unfortunately; yet another serious lack in our legal system, imo.  Councils, on the other hand, have powers to evict nuisance tenants but are not quick to use them and councils vary widely; I hope yours is less useless than mine.

I will close by saying I was a council tenant for years; I was and am very grateful to have been so lucky.  Please don't tar all those in a certain category with the same brush.

anselld

Smodlet said:

If a council can take so long to do anything in those circumstances, I do not hold out much hope for you with only "normal" (hah!) noise to complain about, given the current situation and the obscenely skewed and long-drawn-out legal system we are subject to.  I wish you luck anyway.

There is a vast difference between a drug-dealing prostitute and noisy kids.  The point is that neither the Council nor Private Landlord will take action against "normal" noise, which is just as well or there would be a lot more evictions. 

Smodlet

anselld said:

Smodlet said:

If a council can take so long to do anything in those circumstances, I do not hold out much hope for you with only "normal" (hah!) noise to complain about, given the current situation and the obscenely skewed and long-drawn-out legal system we are subject to.  I wish you luck anyway.

There is a vast difference between a drug-dealing prostitute and noisy kids.  The point is that neither the Council nor Private Landlord will take action against "normal" noise, which is just as well or there would be a lot more evictions. 

I pretty much said that...

Alex1B

comeandgo said:

sounds like normal family life.  You won't get anywhere with the council, what difference does it make if they are council tenants anyway.  I think you should look at insulation.

Thanks a lot for your comment and indeed, you are right, it makes no difference.